The course commences!

What a way to wake up on a Sunday morning, to a sunny Tereglio and the start of Flutes in Tuscany!

Everyone arrived last night, and we kicked the course off in style with a meal/party all together, giving us an excellent opportunity to bond before the intensities began!

This morning we enjoyed our first luscious breakfast all together on the balcony and a few of us tailed off to take part in Liz’s pre warm-up, morning Pilates class. This was a brilliant way to start the day and really relaxed all of us who attended.

Following this was the warm-up, lead by Sarah, where on the balcony of the Canonica we played our tone exercises in style, to a phenomenal view! Breathing in the fresh Tuscan air filled us with positivity about all that we will learn this week. In our warm-up we learned melodies by ear and got our fingers and brains working with some challenging scale exercises.

Individual lessons with either Liz, Sarah or Philippa also happened this morning and everyone was welcome to watch, or do individual practice. Everyone who had a lesson thoroughly enjoyed it and I certainly got loads out of mine!

Lunch was an almighty affair where everyone joined together for the first time since the warm up. The family who host us for lunch, as ever, provided the most scrumptious feast, and we all left re-energised, full and ready for the afternoons proceedings.

We all attended Philippa’s masterclass where 3 of our students played works by Enesco, Gaubert, and Schubert. This was the first time that we had the pleasure of hearing our young artist Alyse perform. The information delivered throughout the afternoon was awe inspiring and everyone is looking forward to learning more in tomorrow’s masterclass.

After a busy afternoon of intensive learning we enjoyed a well deserved quick cuppa and biscuits! Then we split off into smaller ensembles where respectively we enjoyed a tutor lead, chamber experience. An hour later we joined back together and practiced the large flute orchestra for the concert on Saturday. This was incredible and it was the first time we all played together.

This evening we plan to relax after a busy day, eat some more yummy food at dinner and get to know each other better before the madness begins again tomorrow!

Martha-Lilly Dyer

4x course attendee